Prep Your Home for the Trials of Winter

Posted on:December 28th, 2015bytownAdmin

Winter is a tough season for many reasons for home owners. Finances (gas bills), maintenance (clearing snow out of the driveway) and patience (keeping cold air from seeping through windows) all take a hit during these cold months.

There’s also the human toll of winter. With less direct sunlight, our bodies can’t produce important mood-stabilizing chemicals that help us function and sleep well.

Luckily, there’s things you can start doing now around the home to help keep most of these winter woes at bay.

Closing up the windows

An efficient way to both keep heating bills and temperatures down is by sealing the cold air off at the source. You can winterize and seal windows using multiple methods. These include using rubber sealing at the gaps around the windows, tape you can apply to the indoor window frame or by doubling- or tripling-up on the curtains.

The first two methods can help keep cold air under control very well, just as long as you use quality materials and follow the manufacturers’ instructions. However, we don’t recommend the third method for the next reason on our list.

Getting enough sunlight

Sunlight helps keep our bodies in check, so you should maximize as much light that can come into the home as possible in winter. You should also stay warm, so at night, close the heavy curtains – but during the day, open the curtains and the raise blinds (or least keep the blinds open).

Why is sunlight so important? First, direct sunlight allows our bodies to produce serotonin – a key brain chemical that controls mood. Low levels of serotonin are associated with seasonal affective disorder, a type of low-grade depression common this time of year. Second, sunlight helps our bodies regulator melatonin, a hormone essential for telling our bodies it’s time to sleep.

Humidity in the home

With the windows sealed and the heater cranked up, you risk an unfortunate side effect – low humidity levels in the house. This can lead to skin dryness, respiratory irritation and itchy eyes.

The easiest way to combat this is investing in a quality indoor humidifier. They can pipe in essential moisture and combat over-dryness that can occur with modern heaters.

Getting more help

Now that you see the connection between your house’s health and you well-being during the wintertime, you may be curious about what even more you can do to optimize things for winter.